The invention is directed to a carrier tape having consumable elements for determining an analyte concentration in human or animal body fluids.
Carrier tapes are described in U.S. 2008/0103415 A1, Roe et al., published May 1, 2008, which carry lancets as consumable elements and, folded into a stack, are disposed in a chamber of a magazine. Said magazine, in combination with a lancing device into which the magazine can be inserted, forms a system for determining an analyte concentration of a human or animal bodily fluid. Such systems and similar systems are used by diabetics, for example, who must check their blood glucose level several times a day and, for this purpose, require a sample of bodily fluid, typically blood and/or interstitial fluid, which is obtained from a small puncture wound.
In contrast to lancing systems having drum magazines, which typically contain only six or eight lancing elements, a carrier tape can provide a substantially greater supply of lancing elements. Systems comprising carrier tapes which carry a plurality of consumable elements therefore have the advantage that a user does not have to replace a carrier tape as often or, if disposable devices are used, obtain a new device as often.
Carrier tapes can be reeled onto a core of a spool in a magazine, as is described in U.S. 2006/0173380 A1, Hoenes et al., published Aug. 3, 2006, for instance. Such a core requires considerable installation space, however, in particular when relatively wide consumable elements are involved, which are damaged by a reeling radius that is too narrow. In contrast, magazines comprising carrier tapes folded into a stack enable better utilization of the available installation space.